Abstract:
The Wilcox Solar Observatory began daily observations of the Sun's global magnetic field in May 1975, with the goal of understanding changes in the Sun and how those changes affect the Earth; this is now called space weather. Now low-resolution maps are also made of the Sun's magnetic field each day, as are observations of solar surface motions.

Current staff research topics include space weather, helioseismology, and the solar cycle; The staff are closely associated with the Solar Oscillations Investigation that uses the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) instrument on the SOHO spacecraft to observe the inside of the Sun. WSO is a site of one of the ground-based IRIS Network instruments.